Quote:
Christopher Li wrote:
Ueshiba promoted a number of people to 10th Dan before Tohei, were they better or worse? He gave a Menkyo-Kaiden to Roy Suenaka - does that mean he "got it"? Without disparaging Tohei (for whom even Saito had great respect), I don't think that Ueshiba really cared that much about the ranking system - things like that just didn't interest him very much.
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Not trying to be contentious, but the fact that he promoted others 10th dan sort of bolsters my argument, which is that, if Saito had a truer grasp of the art as O-sensei taught it, then why didn't O-sensei give him the recognition he extended to Tohei, Suenaka and others? And if rank and licenses really didn't matter to him, why did he bother granting them?